


They Also Have Teeth

by Multiple_Universes



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Halloween, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2020-12-20 20:55:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21063056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multiple_Universes/pseuds/Multiple_Universes
Summary: The feud between werewolves and vampires goes back many centuries, so the last thing that anyone expects when a vampire and a werewolf run into each other at a Halloween party is for them to fall in love. Or, perhaps, it’s the first thing someone expects? It’s hard to say for certain…





	1. The Biggest Halloween Party of All Time

**Author's Note:**

> Even though it's a Halloween-themed fic, I thought I'd start posting it early and hopefully the whole thing will be up by October 31st!
> 
> I don't think this will be a long fic, but I guess we'll find out soon?

It was advertised as the Biggest Halloween Party of All Time. The organizers said nothing about plans to break a world record, but they acted as if that was their true goal. They spared no expense on advertisements. Posters went up around the city. Ads adorned the sides of buses, the walls of bus stops, the streetlamp poles along the roads. They promised fun surprises, a big dance party with good music and a “spook-tacular” time.

“Come one, come all,” they repeated an old phrase. Was it at all surprising, then, that so many answered the call? Or that they got a few visitors they hadn’t expected to get?

Halloween was nothing more than an excuse for everyone to play dress-up. Who will believe that on All Hallows’ Eve other beings walked among humans? And, yet, that year they did.

The evening of October 31st descended on the city and the streets filled with people dressed in all kinds of costumes. After the trick-or-treating was done, adults in costumes rushed to the big party, impatient to have their share of the holiday.

Once a person stepped into the grand hall, their eyes were drawn to the ceiling where strings of pumpkin lights filled the air with a warm orange glow. The walls were lined with masks and pictures of every supernatural being imaginable – witches, vampires, ghosts, werewolves and many, many others. Skeletons stood in different corners of the hall, holding bowls of candy between their frail fingers. There was a long table covered with glasses filled with a deep red liquid – no, not blood and not even wine, but merely innocent water disguised with a bit of food colouring.

A band, dressed up and painted to look like skeletons, performed on a stage, their voices booming around the room.

And, of course, there were the guests themselves. What words can hope to describe the many costumes that someone could find here? The guests poured all their imagination, humour and creativity into the clothes they wore to the party and the end result was magnificent. Every supernatural being even remotely associated with Halloween could be found here, every colour and type of fabric, every popular historical figure and character from a movie. There was everything from a slim cat suit to a big bulky dress that extended a meter away from the wearer’s body.

A person walking through the crowd could stumble into Queen Elizabeth the first chatting to a mermaid and a witch, while further away Darth Vader danced with Cleopatra. A few steps away Wonderwoman was telling Sailor Moon an old joke.

One guest – a very pale man with short blond hair and striking blue eyes – watched everyone with a faint air of detachment. He’d arrived alone and was convinced that he would leave alone too. There was an air of sadness about him. He’d thrown on a long red-lined cloak, a black vest and a white shirt that caught the eye. When he smiled, he demonstrated two rows of sharp teeth. In short, he was dressed as a vampire.

The lonely vampire had already made his rounds of the room. He’d admired the skeletons scattered around the room and ascertained quite quickly that the red liquid in the glasses was nothing more than water.

Now he was watching the dancers with envy. If only someone would dance with him! If only someone (very handsome, of course) came along and said something like, “You are the most beautiful person I’ve ever met. May I have the honour of a dance?”

And the vampire would lower his eyes in embarrassment and smile and accept. They would flirt shower each other with compliments.

The vampire suppressed a sigh. He wasn’t supposed to be here, but all he wanted was a dance. Surely that wasn’t a crime! But, no, he already knew that he would spend the whole night standing here and watching the dancing pairs with envy.

_I should’ve picked a different costume, _he thought miserably. _Something original that would’ve caught everyone’s attention. That would make someone want to dance with me, surely!_

He remembered how he’d gotten ready in his room, throwing anxious glances at his window, worried that any minute now his mother would barge in and demand to know where he was going.

_He threw on his cloak and wondered if it suited him. Ought he leave his neck open to remind everyone where vampires drank from? If only there was a way for him to see what he looked like that could help him decide!_

_In the end, he settled for buttoning up his shirt all the way up._

An idea came to him then. _If I stand next to the drinks, I can wait until someone comes there and give them a glass and start a conversation that way. _It was a brilliant plan.

The vampire directed his steps to the table, scolding himself for not having thought of this idea earlier. He sped up and got so absorbed by his idea that he didn’t notice that he was walking directly at someone.

They collided with a painful bang.

“Ah! How clumsy of me!” the vampire exclaimed. Before he even saw who he’d bumped into, his mind was telling him that here it was – the fateful meeting he’d been waiting for.

The person he collided with turned out to be Cleopatra. Beside her Darth Vader lost his temper.

The vampire apologized over and over again, backing away and regretting deeply that he’d taken the trouble to come to the party only to be insulted.

Again he stumbled into someone, but this time his feet betrayed him and he lost his balance.

“Look out!” a voice shouted, but the vampire already resigned himself to his fate and made no attempt to remain upright.

A pair of arms caught him.

He closed his eyes and pretended to faint.

Just for a moment he wanted to lose himself in the fantasy that a handsome stranger had caught him and was holding him protectively. He didn’t want to open his eyes to discover that this wasn’t the case.

But, after a few minutes, he had to give in to the inevitable. He opened his eyes.

A face full of concern was studying him. It was a handsome face.

The vampire cast a quick look around for the stranger’s date and, not finding anyone, decided that the date must have stepped away for some reason or other. He straightened up with a smile.

“Thank you very much for rescuing me,” he said and heard the stranger’s heart beat faster. And he couldn’t help it: his upbringing taught him how to act in a situation like this one. He took the stranger’s hand and bestowed a kiss upon it.

Something like a shock of electricity passed through the stranger’s blood. The vampire raised his eyes and saw what he hadn’t noticed the first time around: his rescuer was a werewolf.

The werewolf looked uneasy and the vampire decided to turn up the charm. “How can I possibly thank you?” he asked, his voice smooth as he stroked the werewolf’s hand. “Perhaps you will give me the honour of a dance?”

The werewolf accepted.

They walked out onto the dancefloor, where – just the vampire’s luck – a slow song began to play.

The werewolf raised his arms, hesitated and finally lowered them onto the vampire’s shoulders. They stepped to one side and then to the other, slowly edging into the beat, as if stepping into a pool of cold water.

“I like your costume,” the werewolf said after a long silence. “The clothes are very… um… very stylish.”

“Thank you.” The vampire wasn’t rude. He wasn’t going to tell his dancing partner that his family would’ve been ashamed of him for dressing in a way they considered distasteful. They always ordered fashion magazines and then put all their efforts into looking like the people on the pages of those magazines. They would’ve never approved of his long opera cloak or of his shirt and vest that went out of style more than a century ago. He’d only dressed this way to match his vampire costume.

But no one said things like these to handsome young men who appeared out of nowhere to come to other people’s rescue. Not if they wanted to continue dancing with them, anyway.

“And I really like teeth you’re wearing! They suit you,” the werewolf added.

“Thank you,” the vampire said once more and lowered his eyes bashfully. “They’re my real teeth,” he added after a short pause and looked up through his eyelashes.

The werewolf got really flustered at that admission. “Yes. Of course! Right. That’s why they look so… real.”

The vampire chuckled. The stranger was in a blue suit with a pair of dog ears on his head and a tail stuck to his lower back. The vampire had the sudden urge to play with the ears and tail, which he fought hard to suppress, telling himself that their owner will only get offended if he does.

“Your tail and ears are very cute, Mr. Werewolf,” he said, stepping right up to his partner.

The werewolf retreated. “Th-thank you,” he said with a stutter. “I bought them in a costume store.”

“They suit you.”

The music ended. They both stopped moving and simply stood there, as if glued to the spot.

_You must know _what_ I am, _the vampire thought.

As if in confirmation of this, he heard the werewolf take a deep breath. Something was happening to him, as if breathing in the vampire’s scent was making his fur stand on end.

_He’s terrified, _the vampire thought and panicked, unsure of what to do next.

A new song started to play.

“Another dance?” the vampire offered. “Or are you tired?”

“I really shouldn’t…” the werewolf admitted. His eyes searched the room and the vampire remembered about the date he’d never seen, but who he was sure existed.

“I’m sorry,” the vampire apologized, backing away and letting the werewolf go. “Your date must be looking for you.”

“Date?” the werewolf echoed. “What date?” He gave the vampire a puzzled look. “_My_ date? But I don’t have a date!”

This pleased the vampire immensely. “Well, then…” he began, stepping just a little bit closer than he’d been before. “Perhaps, you will accept me as your date for tonight?” His hand trailed over the werewolf’s arm.

And then the band began to sing, cutting into their conversation and demanding everyone’s attention. _“I put a spell on you…”_

The vampire let his eyes gleam as he dimmed the lights in the hall.

_“…and now you’re mine.”_

The werewolf stepped back.

_Let him go, _the vampire told himself. _Let him see he is free to leave. It will make him eager to return._

It was an old trick and one the vampire hadn’t used in a few years. He released the werewolf and gave an innocent smile.

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Werewolf. Allow me to thank you once more for rescuing me.” He bowed and forced himself to turn away.

_“If you don’t believe, you better get superstitious…”_

He walked away slowly, but the werewolf didn’t follow. His charm hadn’t worked, then. The vampire felt disappointed. He’d lost his touch. He tried to assure himself that it didn’t matter. It wasn’t important.

But he knew that he was lying to himself.

He returned to the drinks table and downed several glasses and before he remembered that it was water with a bit of colour and not something stronger.

How long must he stay here? He needed to leave. He needed to go back to his castle and hide from the rest of the world in the darkest spot he could find.

The werewolf watched the vampire walk away. He hadn’t expected to run into a real vampire at this party and it was making him nervous. Instinct told him that he ought to turn around and run, but a feeling he couldn’t explain kept him in place. Then he saw the way his shoulders dropped as he walked away and he thought, _It’s just a dance. Nothing bad can happen, if the two of us just go dancing._

In this, he was very much mistaken, which only proved how little experience he had in dealing with other species, especially when they took on a very charming appearance.

He rushed after the vampire, pushing through the crowd and apologizing to everyone he passed, not bothering to stop and see what damage he’d caused.

“Mr. Vampire, I’d like –” he began, jumping in front of the man. “I’d like to dance some more with you, if you don’t mind?”

The vampire gave him a look of surprise, which turned into one of pure delight. He took the werewolf’s by the hands. “Yes, of course!” he exclaimed as he led the way to the dancefloor.

A vampire’s emotions smelled different from that of a human, but the werewolf could still tell his enthusiasm was honest.

The werewolf could feel his own excitement rise in his chest.

After that, they danced to every single song the band performed, not matter how slow or fast it was. Most of the songs were fast and the werewolf bounded around the vampire, letting himself get carried away. After a dance that went better than all the others, the vampire complimented him, “You’re so good at dancing!”

He was a good dog. And the werewolf could barely restrain himself from jumping onto the vampire and licking his face, remembering just in time that his mother had taught him that other races didn’t do that. Under his skin, he felt his real tail wagging.

He wondered how obvious his reaction was. Could the vampire smell it? Did everyone else smell other people’s emotions? He thought he heard somewhere that others couldn’t smell emotions in the same way that werewolves could, but he wasn’t sure. He floundered in embarrassment, covered his face with his hands and said, “You’re good at dancing too.”

“Thank you.”

_Calm down, _the werewolf ordered himself. _Calm. Down._

But the vampire was studying him, making it hard to keep his feelings in check. There was a full moon out tonight and as his control wavered, the werewolf felt its tug on him. It wanted him to change.

_Please not now._

The last thing a party needed was a werewolf changing shape. But the pull was strong, and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to resist it for long. “I-I need to go…” he stammered out, searching desperately for the exit. “It’s very late and I need to…”

“You didn’t tell me your name!” the vampire suddenly remembered. “And I never told you mine. How rude of me!” He paused. “My name is…”

The werewolf waited as if his whole life depended on the end of that sentence. “…Victor,” he finished at last and gave the werewolf an expectant look.

“My name is…”

He ought to give a false name, the werewolf thought. His father had always taught him caution. He’d learned to hide his secret from a young age, but even standing before a vampire he couldn’t lie. He _wanted_ to tell him his real name. It was just a shame that he didn’t have a grand title. Something about the vampire’s – no, _Victor’s _– manner suggested that he would’ve been proud to know that his dancing partner had been Lord Vermillion, or Duke Cerulean (the werewolf had discovered both names in books and thought they sounded very impressive). But the werewolf had no titles like that.

“I’m… Yuuri,” he finished simply and, remembering how Victor had spoken, he took Victor’s hand and raised it to his lips. “It was an honour to dance with you, Victor.”

“L-likewise…”

Yuuri breathed in Victor’s scent and the wolf inside him pushed him forward. He could feel his teeth and nails want to lengthen. The smell of the vampire was enough to make any werewolf prepare for a fight, but Victor was polite and so very handsome and, so, instead of hurting him, Yuuri stepped forward and rubbed his head against Victor’s chest.

He froze in embarrassment and then spun around and bolted out of the grand hall.

Victor stared after Yuuri with his hand pressed to his chest to the place where Yuuri’s head had been moments before. His heart beat fast. Of course, when compared to a human heart, it beat very slowly, but he couldn’t remember his heart ever beating this fast.

Like Yuuri, Victor had considered giving a fake name. He’d thought about introducing himself as a Lord or a Duke, something that sounded noble and grand. Perhaps even something that was hard to pronounce. But something about Yuuri made him want to appear simpler than he was. He worried that Yuuri might take it the wrong way and try to address Victor by his title and so he became just Victor. Just Victor let Yuuri run away and then walked calmly past the other guests and out of the grand hall.

The Halloween party had been a great success and he wondered why he hadn’t come earlier.

He walked around a corner where he’d left his expensive car and slipped into the backseat without a word.

“Did you have a good time, sir?” his driver asked.

“Oh yes…” Victor murmured, “a very – ah!” he suddenly exclaimed, raising his hands to his face. “We made no promise to meet! How will we find each other again?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please bear with me as I try to figure out which tags to use. For some reason that's always a challenge for me.
> 
> ...is there a tag for lovers who come from two families which are in a fight? Does that count as enemies to lovers?


	2. Love Will Find a Way

Love will find a way, Victor told himself as he returned to his castle. Love had to find a way and love _had_ to work hard because the centuries-long war between werewolves and vampires meant that they knew very little about who lived where, having no reason to drop by and make social calls. More than that, it meant that any future visits were going to be very awkward.

Victor, who had spent the past century with only his servants and his family for company, was desperate for a change of scene.

He froze halfway up the stairs into the castle. Love? When did this become about _love_? He barely knew the werewolf! It had just been a couple of dances! They hadn’t even spoken properly to each other.

_I’m letting my imagination run off again, _Victor thought, shaking his head at himself. _Love? As if true love can happen just like that! _But that wasn’t him protesting, that was more something his father would say to him, if he ever found out.

But, despite his best efforts, his imagination sprinted ahead, painting images of secret meetings by moonlight – not the full moon, of course, Yuuri would have to change for those. He and Yuuri would hide in the shadows of a forest and… He wasn’t sure what they could do. Exchange kisses?

He remembered the way the werewolf had looked at him, the sound of his heart beating fast and the knowledge that here, so very close was someone with warm blood in their veins.

He got up and paced the room. It wasn’t love, it was… curiosity. Right, curiosity and something to do. He would find Yuuri and maybe ask him for another dance. That sounded like a brilliant plan.

The werewolf danced like – Victor’s imagination struggled to come up with a good metaphor – like the soft moonlight falling through the branches of the trees, like the taste of rich blood on Victor’s tongue, like… well, like something amazing and magical and more tempting than anything Victor had ever tried.

Outside dawn was beginning just as he entered his room in the castle’s cellar. He felt the sun rise even as he opened the lid of his coffin and stepped inside.

Vampires didn’t need sleep, but after all his dancing Victor needed a short break to gather his thoughts and come up with a plan.

By the time the sun set his mind worked out something that felt like a plan. He passed through the rooms of the tower that was all his and gathered the few things he would need on his journey.

Once his preparations were complete, he summoned his butler.

The butler rushed inside into the room in response to the call. Unlike Victor, he was a human being. His family had served Victor’s for generations and they were all traditionalists. The current butler, Mr. Yakov Feltsman, was ever more so. He liked to preach about duty and what vampires were supposed to be like, much to Victor’s frustration. Victor tended to tune him out when the old man got well on his way into a rant.

It was understandable, then, that Victor wasn’t pleased with having to talk to Mr. Feltsman, but someone needed to know where Victor was just in case his parents decided to send for him.

“Yes, Your Lordship?” the butler asked, as soon as he stepped into the room.

Victor watched him. He’d watched the man grow old and he wondered now how the man could bear it. “I have… private matters to attend to.” He liked the sound of those words. They made it sound as if he had a special mission that had to be kept secret. “You are to look after the castle while I’m gone.” He smiled. “Tell mother and father not to worry about me.”

“I am a butler. It is my duty to look after the castle.” Mr. Feltsman bristled and then he asked, “Private matters? What are you talking about?”

“They’re… private,” Victor insisted with a smile he hoped was mysterious.

“But you don’t have any – What should I tell your parents, if they demand to know where you’ve gone?” Mr. Feltsman asked. Rage crept into his voice. He had a very short temper for someone who could get sick and who grew old with time.

Victor allowed himself a laugh. “Just make something up, Yakov!” He walked past the butler and out of the room.

“What can I possibly make up?” Mr. Feltsman muttered in a low voice. “You selfish –”

Victor hurried down the steps. He had no time for an argument with Mr. Feltsman. Yuuri was waiting for him, or, at least, Victor told himself that Yuuri was waiting for him. He didn’t dare consider the alternative.

Victor left the castle without throwing a single glance back over his shoulder. He circled around the castle to where his car stood and climbed inside it. This time he would be the one to drive it. If humans could drive, then so could vampire, he told himself.

Thirty minutes later, he finally figured out how to make the car go forward.

Two hours later, he was out on the road leading from his castle and to the next city.

Three hours later, he was lost. Love had to put in even more effort and possibly call a friend for backup.

Vampires and werewolves had been at war for a very long time. No one could remember how it had started. Was it a result of bitter resentment building up over the years? Was it something someone had said, or done? No one could remember anymore, but there were certainly many theories going around. The fact of the matter was – they were at war. Werewolves were supposed to hate vampires and vampires were supposed to hate werewolves. Many had died on either side as undead blood made undead hands unclean. It was a long time before both sides agreed to a ceasefire.

Exactly two hundred years had passed between the day of the ceasefire and the day when Yuuri and Victor met. Two hundred years during which neither side saw a glimpse of each other, as around them humanity continued to march on confidently towards progress, dismissing stories of vampires and werewolves as mere fantasy.

Humans live short lives and it only takes a generation or two before events begin to fade away from humanity’s memory. Vampires and werewolves, on the other hand, live for centuries and they have excellent memories.

Victor hadn’t fought and he hadn’t been there when the agreement had been drawn up and signed between the two sides. His parents had signed on his behalf and told him to stay away from werewolves in the future. Surely a date with a werewolf wasn’t against the terms of the ceasefire? Right?

Let us leave Victor for now, stranded as he is in the middle of a road between two cities he’d never heard of and go to Yuuri.

The werewolf knew the smell of vampire was all over him, so the first thing he did once he finally stopped running was stop and think. The second thing he did was realize that he was out under the moonlight and wolf-shaped again.

He’d lost his costume somewhere along the way and all he needed to do now was to lose the vampire’s smell as well.

It was hard to do: rolling around in the dirt didn’t help, so he had to gather all his self-control and make for the nearest lake.

He arrived home after dawn, dry and smelling of dirt, but at least all trace of the vampire smell was gone.

He slipped through the house, changed, washed himself a second time and rolled up on his bed of blankets to cry.

There was nothing left for him to remember the vampire by, nothing but his memory of the dances they’d stared and the knowledge that the vampire couldn’t be interested in him. Why would a vampire risk everything for a werewolf?

Yuuri made a wining sound in the back of his throat and went silent. He told himself that with a bit of time he would forget. He just needed something to take his mind off that party and, really, the vampire hadn’t been _that_ charming.

But his memory rebelled, filling his mind with the sound of his smooth voice and the gentle touch of his hands.

That night, unable to resist the pull, he found the tallest hill and called out the vampire’s name into the night, “Victor!”

Wolves for hundreds of miles around picked up the cry and carried it over the land. “Victor!” the trees and the hills repeated. “Victor!” the wind whispered. “Victor!” the moon said in return.

Many miles away, Victor stopped his car and listened to the wolves howling in the distance. If he’d been a human stuck out on an empty road, in the middle of the night with wolves howling on all sides, he would’ve been terrified for his life. Even as a vampire, he had something to be afraid of, but all he did was open the car door and shout, “I’m coming, my love!” into the night.

Feeling ashamed for having given into his impulse, Yuuri returned to his room and slept, doing his best to forget about the dance and the handsome vampire named Victor.

The following night, when the moon was not as full and it was much easier for Yuuri to resist the call to change, he went out into the woods behind his house to take a look at the pond that was surrounded on all sides by a thick line of trees.

He often came here when he wanted to be alone. The water here was always very still and hardly anyone ever came here apart from him.

He sat on a rock and gazed out at the reflection of the moon. This time it made him want to cry. How could he have ever thought that going to the Halloween party was a good idea?

He sat still, wallowing in self-pity when a sound made his ears twitch.

Someone was coming towards him through the forest.

And then the wind carried the familiar scent of a vampire across the lake to where he stood.

He straightened up. Here? What was Victor doing here? His heart beat fast and for one wild moment he wondered if it was possible for him to leap over the pond. He wanted to leap into Victor’s waiting arms and be held tightly to his chest. He wanted a lot of things and not all of them were coherent, but his feet refused to listen to him and he stood still.

Clouds drifted across the sky, revealing the waning moon and letting it illuminate the scene.

Victor stepped out of the trees and stood on the opposite side of the pond.

Yuuri’s sight wasn’t as good as his sense of smell, or his hearing. He couldn’t see Victor’s face from where he stood, but he imagined that across the pond their eyes met.

Victor’s figure vanished.

Yuuri panicked and then he spotted the little dark shape making straight for him and, before he knew it, there was a little bat fluttering in his face, planting little kisses on his cheeks.

Yuuri laughed and raised a hand to try to catch the bat with his hand. “Victor! I’m – I’m happy to see you too!”

The bat flew away, circled him and, with a noise like a sneeze, suddenly Victor was standing before him. He gave a playful wink and said, “You called?”

Yuuri took in his appearance. Not a single hair on Victor’s head was out of place. His clothes looked as if he’d ironed them right before putting them on. More than that, they flattered his figure as if they’d been sewn specifically for him. They made him look fashionable in the same way that models on the covers of magazines did.

_This isn’t fair, _Yuuri thought. _Whenever I change back, I always end up naked. I feel disoriented and dishevelled. I never look like _that_. _He knew it wasn’t Victor’s fault and kept smiling anyway.

Victor circled him and something about his movements reminded Yuuri of a cat. Yuuri’s heart stopped for a second and then beat faster than ever.

Victor had come here for him! Victor had actually gone to the trouble to find him! Victor was here! The thoughts sent thrills up his spine.

_Victor is here! _The realization knocked the wind out of him. His parents were barely a half hour’s walk away. His grandparents – barely further than that. There were more mansions and castles filled with werewolves around here than he could count and most of them had fought against vampires during the war.

“What’s wrong?” Victor asked. He looked around himself, as if expecting that the reason was just standing somewhere nearby.

“You need to go!” Yuuri insisted, joining his hands. “It’s not safe for you here!”

“Safe?” Victor attempted to laugh, but the sound came out strange.

“My family fought in the War,” Yuuri explained. He was careful to stand a little bit apart from Victor, terrified of getting the vampire’s scent all over himself again. “What if they see you here and decide to attack?”

Victor put his hands on Yuuri’s shoulders. “I’m not scared of them.”

It was so easy to give in to the sound of his voice, so easy to be lulled into trusting him to take care of everything. But Yuuri had learned self-control and he was learning to ignore vampire charm when he was worried about the vampire in question. He remembered his parents’ stories when he was still a young pup, sitting by the fire and listening to them talk about vampires working their charm over their victims and making them do anything they liked.

“I never fought in the war,” Victor admitted in gentle tones. “I was never their enemy.” He raised his arms in a placating gesture.

“They won’t know that.” Yuuri forgot about his plan to keep his distance and grabbed Victor’s hands with his own. He was here, _here_. The realization struck him again, leaving him breathless. He was here for Yuuri. “I want to see you again,” he whispered.

The trees whispered around them, as if echoing Yuuri’s words.

“Where? When?” Victor asked hungrily.

That was the difficult question. Yuuri lowered his head as he considered his answer. They needed some neutral territory and there was only one option Yuuri could think of.

“In the human city,” he finally said, the words coming out slowly and then he gave this answer some more though. It was perfect. He nodded. “Yes, among humans.” He raised his head and met Victor’s eye. _Where we can blend in. Hopefully._

Victor considered this suggestion.

“Think about it,” Yuuri went on, warming to the idea. “My… family won’t risk exposure and… and I imagine that yours wouldn’t want it either, so we should be safe.”

“Safe…” Victor repeated. He looked away, his attention on the tall bushes, as if he expected someone to burst out of them and attack the two of them. “Why do I feel as if the war is still ongoing?”

“Because it is. In a way.” Yuuri sighed. “Does the sunlight kill you?” he lowered his voice to just barely above a whisper.

Victor turned to look at him. “Direct sunlight,” he answered in a voice as quiet as Yuuri’s.

“Let’s meet after sundown. I won’t… I can’t go out in a full moon, when the… I can’t control my shape in direct moonlight. But only if it’s a full moon,” he hastened to add.

Victor leaned close. “I can cover up from the sun,” he offered in the same low voice. His breath tickled Yuuri’s face.

Yuuri’s heart beat fast, more terrified than Yuuri felt. He lowered his eyes, feeling embarrassed by this.

“I will keep us both safe,” Victor promised. “I want to get to know you better.”

Yuuri raised his head. He could smell the vampire’s wanting and doubt entered his mind once more. Was it right to do this? Was it a good idea? Victor was a _vampire_. He could –

He shut the thought down right away. That wasn’t him thinking. That was his parents and his whole extended family. It was nothing but nasty rumours and lies.

Victor must’ve guessed what was going through his mind because he said, “I won’t turn you into a vampire. Not without your permission.”

A weak laugh escaped Yuuri’s lips. “Can a vampire turn a werewolf?” he asked. Then, a thought occurred to him. “And werewolves bite too. I wonder what happens when a werewolf bites a vampire…” The rest of the words got caught in his throat. His cheeks coloured as he realized what he’d just said.

“I’m willing to give it a try to find out,” Victor announced. With a quick movement, he undid the top few buttons of his shirt and exposed his long white neck. “Bite me. Please.”

Yuuri leapt away from him in terror. The reaction happened instinctively with hardly any thought on his part.

Victor stood with his shirt very open, giving Yuuri a hurt look as Yuuri hid behind a tree. “What’s wrong?” he asked in a hurt voice.

With a great effort of will, Yuuri walked back to him. “You startled me,” he lied, not daring to look at Victor’s exposed neck. The scent of the vampire was much stronger now. It was doing something strange to him and he wasn’t sure what it was. He wanted to hold Victor close, to touch his bare skin and to get as far away from him as possible. He was too terrified to understand his own feelings and didn’t dare explore them.

Victor pouted and even the way his lips folded into a pout was unfair. It was the cutest thing Yuuri had ever seen. There was no way anyone could say no to that pout. Victor buttoned his shirt up, not giving Yuuri time to do anything. Now he smelled like disappointment.

Yuuri had made a big mistake.

What if Victor didn’t agree to come see him now? What if biting each other’s necks was a vampire custom that Yuuri wasn’t aware of? What if –

He strode over to Victor, caught his hands just as the vampire was about to do up the last button and stuck his face between the two halves of the vampire’s shirt.

The smell of the vampire was strong. It made blood pound in Yuuri’s ears. He pressed his lips against the very bottom of Victor’s neck without thinking.

Victor gave a loud, startled gasp.

Yuuri pulled away at once, but this time Victor was ready: he caught Yuuri and pulled him back in. He felt Victor’s hands trail up his back and angled his face up to look into Victor’s face. The tip of his nose slid over Victor’s skin.

The vampire gave a little shudder and hung on tighter.

Yuuri raised his face a little and his lips ended up by Victor’s ear. “Please, let me go. What if someone comes here and sees us?” He knew this wasn’t likely to happen: barely anyone other than him ever visited this place, but his fear refused to listen to reason and kept insisting that any minute now someone would come and find them. They would attack Victor and ruin everything before Yuuri even had a chance to properly get to know Victor.

Yuuri realized then just how desperately he wanted to get to know Victor. He _wanted_ this. _How_ he wanted this!

Victor released him and Yuuri began to worry that he’d inadvertently hurt his feelings.

“Please don’t be angry,” he whispered and rubbed his nose against Victor’s cheek.

Victor’s laughter filled the clearing. “Of course not! How can I be mad at you?”

Yuuri stepped back. He’d gotten carried away again, but Victor didn’t seem to mind, so maybe it was alright.

“When and where will I see you again?” Victor asked, catching Yuuri’s hand with his own.

Yuuri stared at their joined hands. He had to keep reminding himself that he barely knew Victor, that they were only a step away from strangers, that he barely know Victor, that he was putting a lot of trust in this vampire. But this felt _so right_. He felt as if they truly belonged together.

“Wh-when?” Yuuri repeated to hide his embarrassment and to hide the fact that his thoughts were elsewhere.

“And where?” Victor added with a soft laugh. He pulled Yuuri close, almost as if they were about to begin a dance.

“I don’t know. When do you want to meet?”

“Tomorrow night!” Victor replied eagerly.

Yuuri gave this some thought before nodding. “Tomorrow night.” He felt his heart beat faster at this promise. What would their meeting be like? “As for where…” he paused to give this some thought. There was really only one option he could think of. “What about in front of the grand hall? The one where… we met.” The last few words came out in almost a whisper at the sight of how Victor was looking at him.

The vampire’s eyes seemed to glow on the darkness. “It will be an honour,” he declared and raised Yuuri’s right hand to his lips for a kiss.

Tomorrow. The word carried with it so much promise.

They stared into each other’s eyes for a long time before Yuuri remembered what time it was. “It will be dawn soon. You need to go.”

“Yes…” Victor agreed, still staring at Yuuri.

Victor needed to go, Yuuri told himself, but went on staring as if mesmerized by Victor’s stare. The sun will rise and kill Victor right in front of Yuuri. He had to go. He had to…

Yuuri freed his hands from Victor’s hold as gently as he could and stepped back. “You need to go. I will see you to –” he faltered. “Tonight.”

Victor nodded with a smile. “Tonight.” There was another sound like a sneeze as he turned back into a bat and then he was gone.

Yuuri dropped to the ground, the promise ringing in his ears. What will their next meeting bring?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the nice comments on the previous chapter! This update came a little later than I wanted. I made the mistake of starting a really good book series and couldn’t put it down until I was done all four books. I don’t know how many of you have read the Raven Cycle, but now I get to fight the temptation to write a fic for it. Haha  
Also I’d like to thank the person who made that nice tweet about YOI fic writers. Sorry I don’t have a twitter account and can’t reply directly!


	3. Secret Meetings

The human city was the kind of place that got described as “the city that never sleeps.” If someone woke up in the middle of the night and decided that what they needed right this second was a snack, or a book to read they could find a shop that sold just what they were looking for. There were shops that were open all around the clock and others that closed for the night, while a third group was open only during the night, like two people working different shifts.

This meant that if – just for the sake of argument – a vampire and a werewolf were to meet around midnight, they had a big selection of places where they could go on their date.

Like the little coffee shop just across the grand hall, for example.

Chris hated working the late night shift. At first, it had seemed like a good idea, possibly even romantic, but it messed with his sleep schedule and he learned quickly enough what sort of customers he got in the hours before night officially turned to morning. Too often it was students cramming anxiously before an exam or working hard to finish an essay, assignment or just some sort of homework before the morning came.

Chris always did his best to always be on hand with extra coffee and something sweet, all while pretending that he was completely immune to the anxious atmosphere in the café. He had to smile and ignore the urge to persuade the students to go home and get some sleep.

That day’s visitor didn’t look like the kind of visitors he was used to. He was a handsome man that Chris mentally decided was either in his late twenties, or early thirties. He was very well-dressed and picked a seat next to one of the windows. Those two details, combined with the many glances the customer threw out the window told Chris that he was waiting for a date.

_How romantic! _Chris thought and continued to watch, curious to see what the customer’s date will look like.

A very slow hour passed. Normally, Chris hated it when it got like this because there was a bigger chance of him falling asleep when there was nothing to do. This time, however, he used this chance to keep studying the customer and to try to guess what his date will look like.

_It’s going to be a handsome man, _Chris thought. _It has to be._

Finally, the visitor seemed to spot the person he was waiting for. He rose to his feet, straightened out his clothes and fixed his hair before rushing outside with a smile of pure joy on his lips.

Chris walked over to the table he’d vacated and began to clear it so he could sneak a look out the window.

Sure enough, the visitor’s date was a handsome man. Chris caught half a glimpse before he forced himself to turn away. Best to leave them to it.

Five minutes later, they entered the café.

As Chris took their orders, he got a good look at the second man. This one had a hint of shyness about him. He often lowered his eyes and stole sideways glances at his companion. The first man watched him as if he was a miracle he had never expected to encounter in his life.

“Can I have your names, please?” Chris asked. “For the order?”

They both gave a startled jolt, as if his request had struck them somehow, and exchanged a look.

“Victor,” said the one who’d arrived first.

“Yuuri,” the second one answered.

They exchanged another look and took each other’s hands.

“Your order will be ready in a few minutes, Victor and Yuuri,” Chris promised, knowing that behind him his partner for this shift was already on it.

They sat down at a different table from the one Victor had taken the first time and watched each other with a kind of hunger in their eyes.

Victor reached across the table and put his hand over Yuuri’s. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself?”

Chris’ eyebrows rose. Was this a first date, then? He wasn’t sure if he’d ever heard of people going for a first date at midnight, but he could see the appeal in the idea.

Beside him, the coffee machine rumbled loudly and drowned out Yuuri’s response, as well as what Victor said after it.

Finally, the machine went quiet and Chris offered to carry their order to their table.

Victor’s thumb was rubbing over Yuuri’s knuckles when they looked up and noticed Chris with his tray. They released each other and Chris lowered the tray between them. He unloaded the cups, suddenly feeling very self-conscious and all too aware that they were waiting for him to leave so they could continue talking.

Victor listened to Yuuri talk about himself.

The werewolf began by insisting that there wasn’t much to tell and then uttered a few simple sentences that told Victor next to nothing about him. Still, Victor was convinced that the werewolf was selling himself short.

Every time Yuuri smiled, Victor felt his own pulse quicken. Each time they held hands, he filled with a comforting warmth that made him wish they would never have to let go.

There was an air of melancholy about Yuuri and Victor was desperate to know all about it. What was causing Yuuri so much pain? Could Victor make it better somehow? But he didn’t want to pry, so he kept his questions to himself.

Yuuri asked Victor to talk about himself and Victor stumbled into the full difficulty of the question himself. What should he talk about? What should he skip? What did Yuuri want to hear? He’d heard once that mysteries were attractive and tried to tell himself that he couldn’t share everything all at once, but he wanted Yuuri to know everything about him. What came out was utterly meaningless and very, very unimpressive.

The barista brought their drinks to them and Victor went silent, grateful for this excuse to stop talking. They both waited for the barista to walk away without saying a word.

_I need something to talk about. My brain is completely blank. _His eye fell on the window, beyond which he could just make out the shape of the grand hall. His mind returned to their dancing and how wonderful it had been. If only there was another party they could both go to for another night of dancing!

Yuuri held his drink with both hands and downed the contents of the cup. Victor watched the barely noticeable Adam’s apple in his throat bob down and up, and felt his teeth ache. He couldn’t look away, mesmerized by the sight and feeling his heartbeat quicken.

_Keep yourself under control._

Yuuri set his cup down and for a moment Victor thought he caught a knowing glint in the werewolf’s eyes, as if he knew what effect he was having on Victor and was very pleased with it.

He set his drink aside. Vampires survived on blood. Very rarely did another drink do the trick. He knew he’d have to drink it eventually to keep up the pretence, but he left that for a little later. Keeping up pretences was why he’d come in here to wait for Yuuri in the first place. A person waiting for a long time out in the street, in the middle of the night, was bound to attract lots of unwanted attention. He’d wanted to remain inconspicuous and opted for waiting indoors.

“Sorry,” Yuuri apologized with his eyes lowered. “I’m not good at making conversation.”

“Neither am I,” Victor admitted, unable to keep the relief from his voice.

He looked around the room and tried to find another conversation topic. Only now did he notice that the café was almost empty. In his attempt for them to remain inconspicuous, he was only drawing more attention to both of them. They needed somewhere else to go, someplace safe where they could meet.

But where could two people meet in the middle of the night without drawing too much attention to themselves? His mind supplied an answer that made him give an embarrassed cough.

“Are you alright?” Yuuri asked.

Images flooded Victor’s mind of Yuuri’s teeth sinking into his skin, as his hands roamed over Victor’s body as they both lay on white sheets in a bedroom somewhere. He gave another cough. “Yes, I’m fine.”

“I was just thinking…” Yuuri began hesitantly. “I really enjoyed dancing with you, um… maybe we can go somewhere to dance?”

Victor forced the images of Yuuri feeling him up out of his mind and focused on the real Yuuri before him. Dancing. He blinked. He heard Yuuri’s heart beat louder.

The werewolf blushed and lowered his head again.

“Dancing sounds like a great idea!” Victor enthused, smiling widely as if all he was thinking about was dancing, as if his mind was very definitely not wandering off somewhere else. Then he wondered how obvious his thoughts were.

Yuuri’s hand slid across the table. He laced his fingers between Victor’s and gave a light squeeze.

For a moment, they were lost in each other’s eyes, caught in a world where only the two of them existed.

Victor had no idea how much time passed before he became aware of where he was and what he’d been doing.

“So…where should we go?” Yuuri prompted.

“Go? Oh, you mean… dancing.” The last word came out in an excited whisper, as if he’d said something else, something that was a bit like a dance, but definitely involved a lot less clothes.

Yuuri coloured again. “Yes.”

“I don’t know,” Victor replied, unable to think of anything other than the honest answer. “I don’t know this city very well.”

“I’ll try to find some place,” Yuuri promised. “I don’t know if they’ll have something open at midnight, but maybe we can meet earlier than that?”

Victor caressed Yuuri’s hand. “How about at sunset?”

“At sunset, then,” Yuuri nodded.

“Where this time?” He couldn’t keep the eagerness from his voice. He wanted to see Yuuri again and again. He wanted to know that there would be another meeting. He _needed_ to know that there would be another meeting.

“Here again?” Yuuri suggested.

Victor accepted with a nod.

They remained in the café until both of them felt the dawn approach. Then they rose together and escaped into the last hour of darkness that night had to offer.

“Which way are you going?” Victor asked.

Yuuri pointed down the street.

“I’ll escort you down the street,” Victor offered and held out his arm.

Yuuri took it.

They walked away, leaving the café behind. Neither of them said a word until they reached an intersection when they had to go their separate ways. They stood still, unable to let each other go.

“Thank you,” Yuuri breathed out at last. “I had a great time with you.”

“The pleasure was all mine,” Victor insisted and they let each other go.

Victor made a few steps away and stopped to turn around and wave at Yuuri.

Yuuri raised his hand and waved back.

Victor did this several times: he would make a few steps, stop and turn around and to wave, unable to wrench himself away from Yuuri. Despite his many stops, it felt like no time had passed at all before Yuuri disappeared from view.

In the café, Chris stared at the empty table. People had come and gone, but that couple had remained in the same spot the whole time. It was obvious that the first date had gone well and, seeing the way they walked out together, Chris was convinced that they were headed for the nearest bedroom they could find.

He had a brief image of crumpled bedsheets after a night spent with his boyfriend and gave a little sigh. He couldn’t help the little pang of jealousy that followed.

He wondered if those two knew how lucky they were.

Victor, meanwhile, thought of himself as doomed forever to battle with obstacles.

He didn’t return to his castle this time. Before he’d arrived for his date with Yuuri, he’d had the foresight to rent a place in the city where he passed himself off as Mr. Cerulean. He rented out the basement of a small house where he had to make do with a bed instead of a coffin. But the mattress was thin and uncomfortable.

Sleeping in Yuuri’s embrace must be much warmer and more pleasant, he decided, and then felt embarrassed for thinking like this.

Yuuri had warm and gentle hands. More importantly, he had a kind heart (and probably very delicious blood too). Victor forced those thoughts back down.

He wanted Yuuri to be his _boyfriend_, he didn’t want – He wanted Yuuri to bite him.

The realization made his heartbeat quicken. The thought he’d tried so hard to avoid thinking raised its head and drowned out all the other thoughts. He wanted Yuuri to bite him like a vampire would and he didn’t care if it turned him into a werewolf. Or, he corrected himself internally, something between a werewolf and a vampire.

He closed his eyes. He wanted more than that, he realized. He wanted to be able to invite Yuuri to his castle. He wanted to give him a grand tour and then invite him to the bedroom in the tallest tower where they’d once allowed guests to stay and hand himself over to Yuuri.

He spent the whole day imagining the both of them together in his castle, letting his imagination take him onward and painting him tempting images of their life in the castle afterwards.

He’d spent most of his existence in his castle and he realized now how much he wanted Yuuri to join him there.

And then it struck him how foolish the idea was: to ask a werewolf to come live with him in the middle of vampire territory was to ask him to put himself willingly in danger.

_No, no, we need to settle somewhere in the human city. Don’t they have castles? _He didn’t know, but it seemed reasonable that they should.

He passed his time in thoughts like these, unable to think of anything else.

As soon as the sun set, he hurried out of the basement and back to the city, determined to keep Yuuri from waiting for too long.

He stopped in the doorway in a panic. He needed to change his clothes! How could he forget such an important detail?

He returned to the basement, cursing himself for his forgetfulness. Another precious hour passed while he tried to settle on what to wear. Finally, dressed and ready to go, he left.

On his way out he stumbled into his landlady, who was a large, kind woman with a heart that had a regular beat that was almost hypnotic. She’d taken Victor in without asking him many questions. She took in the way he was dressed and her face spread in a knowing grin. “Did your date go well, Mr. Cerulean?”

He froze in mid-step. “What date?”

“Yesterday you left dressed very nicely, so I assumed you were going on a date. Here you are again – impeccably dressed and bursting with joy. Your date must be someone very special.”

For a moment, he considered lying, but then thought better of it. What was the point in deceiving a kind lady who also happened to be the one giving him a roof over his head?

“He’s very special,” Victor agreed and smiled widely.

“Well, then,” she approached him and brushed some invisible lint off his shoulders, “I hope you win his heart.” She raised her eyes to meet his.

He nodded solemnly. “I will do my best,” he promised.

She laughed and elbowed him. “Don’t break his heart, tiger.”

The word knocked all the laughter out of him and made him wonder just how obvious he’d been.

She raised her eyebrows at him. “I can see that smile, you know. I saw the way you strode into here. I hope you don’t devour men’s hearts _all _the time!”

“Devour? I-I don’t! I promise!” he protested, making her laugh harder.

“Just messing with you,” she reassured him. “Don’t act so upset!”

Feeling humiliated, he tried to smile and act as if he’d known she was just messing all along.

_She’s very clever. Are all humans this clever? Does this mean that she figured out what I am? And that I gave her a fake name?_

It was a very troubling thought. He wondered too late if lying had been a good idea.

Her eyes glittered as if she’d guessed his most secret thoughts. Then she gave his arm a friendly pat.

He shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m a little nervous, to be honest. His… his family doesn’t approve of me.”

Again, there was that knowing twinkle in her eyes. “Then you’ll just have to win them all over, won’t you?”

He nodded, knowing it was impossible, but not knowing how to explain this to her. How could humans with their short lives understand feuds between beings all of which remember every single time the other group had insulted them in some way? It was just impossible.

He’d have to make do with secret meetings. He’d have to win Yuuri over completely and convince him to run away with him.

But when Victor came to their intended meeting spot, Yuuri wasn’t there and he didn’t come that day. Neither did he come the day after, or for the whole week that followed.


	4. Werewolf Victor

Yuuri was trapped. Upon his return home he found himself surrounded by his family, all of them eager to know where he’d been and curious to see what he would do next.

And Yuuri realized with mild horror that the scent of a vampire was still on him.

They listened to every word he said and nodded along as if they truly believed it all.

And then they sat him down to a meal and watched him eat. They talked about going out on a hunt and made him come along, throwing many glances his way.

Gradually it dawned on him. They were worried that he’d turned into a vampire! The thought almost made him laugh until it was followed by another one: it was possible for a werewolf to turn into a vampire, then!

Despite him eating as before and going out into the sunlight without flinching, they continued to watch him, making it impossible to leave.

Yuuri panicked as several days went by. What would Victor think when he didn’t come as promised? Would he think that Yuuri had abandoned him, or would he realize that something had happened?

He longed to go back to the human city, to dance whole nights away with the vampire, to hold on to him and feel himself held.

Yuuri had to fight down a blush so as to not give himself away as he realized that he wanted more than just a dance.

And now he’d lost his chance! He had no doubt that after waiting on that first day, Victor returned home, feeling cruelly deceived and Yuuri couldn’t blame him.

_They can’t go on like this forever, _he told himself. _A day will come when they’ll stop following my every step and I’ll be free to go find Victor._

It sounded like an excellent plan, so he did his best to be patient with his family as every day he got more anxious over how Victor would greet him when at last they met.

A week went by like this and then a visitor came to the house in the middle of the forest.

It wasn’t long after sundown when a knock sounded on the doors. The family had gathered in a single room and every single one of them was alert, ready to fight.

The person on the other side of the door was a vampire.

His parents exchanged worried looks. Yuuri’s father rose to see who it was as Yuuri shrunk in his seat. He knew that scent!

He wanted to get up and run to the door to defend Victor with his own body, but he caught the look his sister, Mari, shot at him and remained frozen, unable to move.

The unmistakable sound of Victor’s voice drifted into the house. “…My friend asked me to come look in on how his cousin is doing.”

Yuuri’s heart tugged painfully in his chest, beginning him to go.

Mari continued to watch him, no doubt noticing every little change in him.

He did his best to keep from panicking.

“…I hope you’ll forgive me,” Victor went on, “if I accidentally change, the full moon is hard to resist.”

The pull of Victor’s voice was hard to resist and Yuuri leapt from his seat and dashed out into the hall, freezing in his tracks at the sight before him.

Victor stood before his father, wearing old clothes with the faint whiff of a werewolf and Yuuri wondered whose it could possibly be.

As soon as he saw Yuuri, Victor flashed him a smile that was all teeth. He shook a little with excitement and looked ready to pounce.

And then Yuuri understood: he was pretending to be a werewolf and pretending very badly. He’d covered his light skin with dirt, but there was no way to disguise the strong scent of vampire underneath.

Yuuri forced his eyes away from Victor and saw that his father was studying him. “H-hello,” he said shyly, “why don’t you… um… come in?”

Victor beamed and stepped into the house.

The hair on the back of Yuuri’s father’s neck rose. He assumed a fighting stance – something that caught Yuuri entirely by surprise.

Yuuri walked over to him and took Victor’s arm. “I heard so much about you from my cousin! He said a vampire bit you during the war.” He accompanied the words with a look at Victor, ordering him to go along with the story.

Victor frowned. “Yes, it was very terrible.” He made a sad face, trying to get into character. “So I hope you will forgive me, if I act a little like a vampire. The uh… the bite changed me a little. But only a little!” he added, trying to reassure Yuuri’s father.

Yuuri’s father looked from Yuuri to Victor. He dropped his fighting stance and stepped aside.

With a smile that he hoped was welcoming, Yuuri came up to Victor. “Follow me.” He joined his own hands, doing his best to keep from taking Victor’s and led the way into the house.

He was suddenly very conscious of how Victor must see it – an old mansion with disorganized furniture, dark halls and lots of people everywhere. He lived with many of his aunts and uncles and they all came out of their rooms to get a good look at the visitor who smelled so strongly of a vampire.

Yuuri did his best to fight down the panic rising in his chest. They could smell fear, he reminded himself.

“What a charming house!” Victor exclaimed and Yuuri could smell his fear.

_He needs to leave, _Yuuri thought desperately. _This is a mad idea. He must see that now. He isn’t safe here. They’ll attack him the first chance they get. _And then another thought occurred to him. _I can’t let them attack him. I’ll protect him with my own life, if necessary._

They came to the room where Yuuri’s mother and sister sat, waiting to hear news about their visitor.

“This is Victor,” Yuuri said, doing the introductions and trying to remember the exact words of his cover story. “My cousin told me about him…” His words died on his lips. He couldn’t think of a single thing to add.

They surrounded Victor and he feared he really would have to fight them all off, but then his mother smiled and asked, “Do you eat wild boar, Victor?”

“Of course,” Victor answered them without even taking a moment to really consider the question.

“Excellent!” She clapped her hands together. To anyone who didn’t know her very well, she always appeared kind and easy to please, but Yuuri knew all too well that she was rarely kind to strangers and very hard to please.

They prepared a big meal in his honour. Werewolves never troubled themselves with cutlery, preferring to stick to their teeth, but – to Yuuri’s surprise – they found some for Victor to use. The meat was served uncooked and then the whole family gathered around the table, all those pairs of eyes fixed on their visitor.

_It’s a test, _Yuuri realized and edged closer to Victor, feeling at once protective and powerless to do anything. What would he do, if they all decided to attack Victor now?

They exchanged a glance and Victor reached for the food with his hands. He ignored the cutlery and made do with his teeth.

A soft murmur passed through the onlookers.

Yuuri felt his teeth and claws want to lengthen. Beside them, Victor showed no signs of panic as he continued to eat.

“Which cousin did you say introduced Victor to you?” Yuuri’s mother asked, her expression looking gentle and kind to everyone who didn’t know her. Yuuri’s mother had fought fearlessly in the war and – rumour had it – had killed many vampires. It was hard to believe this at first glance.

Yuuri pictured the pretended conversation in his mind. He imagined how he and his cousin – now which was it? – no, not cousin – Minako, it was Minako – how she told him his tragic story. If he convinced himself that this was true, it was just possible that they wouldn’t smell that he was lying and he might succeed in convincing them.

“Sorry, did I say cousin? I meant Minako. She told me the whole story last time we met and I told her that I would be glad to meet Victor.” He made a mental note to ask Minako to go along with this and turned his head to see what Victor was doing now.

The vampire – no, no, he had to keep thinking of him as _Victor_ was watching Yuuri with a dreamy smile on his face.

Yuuri felt his heart flip over in his chest and bits of his body tingle. He wouldn’t be able to hide this, he knew.

Now all the attention was on him and it was terrifying.

Victor leaned forward and rubbed his nose against Yuuri’s cheek.

For several minutes Yuuri couldn’t move. He could barely even breathe. He let Victor move away and watched him give everyone a thrilled look. “I’m exhausted! I don’t mean to intrude on your hospitality, but I was hoping you’d let me stay here for now.”

“Of course!” Yuuri’s mother accepted. “At the next sunrise, I hope you will join us for the hunt!”

Yuuri, who was about to stand up, felt his legs give out under him and dropped back down into his chair.

“Are you alright?” Victor fretted over him.

Yuuri grimaced at his feet, doing his best to hide his terror and confusion. “I never had my legs fail on me like this before!”

Victor held out his arms and pulled Yuuri up from his chair.

First Yuuri stared at Victor’s hands gripping him and then his gaze travelled up to Victor’s face. He felt his heart speed up and forgot to breathe. For a moment, he forgot everything, even his own name.

Victor’s smile remained on his face.

_What do I do? _Yuuri thought. _Is it normal to feel like this? And even if it is, what does a werewolf do when they fell in love with a vampire?_

He knew that there was no answer to that question.

And then he remembered that he was in full view of his whole family and freed himself gently from Victor’s hold. “Thank you,” he said and gave his kindest smile in an attempt to make Victor understand and not be upset with him. “Let me – let me show you to the guest bedroom.” The last word made him colour again.

What was wrong with him? Why did he have to get embarrassed by the smallest thing?

“Lead the way,” Victor said and for a moment, Yuuri was convinced that he would fall and embarrass himself.

Making a great effort, he left the room, not bothering to check if Victor was following him.

As soon as they were out in the staircase Yuuri felt panic overtake him. He had to get Victor out of here before someone hurt him. He had to convince Victor to run and then do his best to distract everyone to buy him more time.

He turned around and faced Victor. “It’s not safe here,” he whispered. “You have to go. You can’t – They’ll kill –”

Victor caught Yuuri’s face with both hands and pressed his mouth against Yuuri’s. Yuuri stumbled back against a wall and leaned against it in an effort to remain upright.

Victor broke the kiss and stroked Yuuri’s face. “I was so worried something had happened to you. I thought I’d go mad when you disappeared.” He caught another kiss and placed a hand right over Yuuri’s heart. “Why are you frightened?” he asked.

Yuuri’s heart was beating so fast he was sure it would jump out of his chest and run away down the hall. He raised a hand to his forehead and tried to gather his thoughts. What had he been thinking about? What had he been about to say?

Victor’s leg slid in between both of his and Yuuri felt the blood rise to his feet.

“They’ll – They’ll see…” he gasped out.

Victor stepped back.

Gripping the wall behind him, Yuuri stood still, staring at Victor with a dazed expression on his face.

“You’re right. Of course,” Victor agreed and turned away. He adjusted his clothes and gave a light cough. “I won’t intrude any longer.”

Too late it occurred to him that he and Victor had just exchanged their first kiss, that Victor had travelled all this way and put himself in danger a second time just to make sure that Yuuri was safe.

“I’m… I’m sorry…” Yuuri whispered and placed his hands on Victor’s chest. “I didn’t think you’d come here for me.”

Something like a pout appeared on Victor’s face. “I came here before,” he reminded Yuuri.

His expression was cute, Yuuri realized and coloured. “Yes… um… well… I didn’t think you’d do it again.”

They stood in silence as precious seconds went by.

“I will always come for you,” Victor promised and took Yuuri’s right hand in both of his. “Always.”

The rational part of Yuuri’s mind pointed out that Victor was a _vampire_ who hunted, that his family was all there and could probably hear them, but Yuuri didn’t care.

He put his hands on Victor’s shoulders and pushed him gently against the wall. “Thank you,” he whispered right before his mouth crashed against Victor’s.

It was a long kiss this time. Yuuri focused all his attention on his mouth, leaving the rest of his body to do whatever it wanted. His knee pushed between Victor’s legs and then rose as he rubbed his thighs against Victor’s. His hands were buried deep in Victor’s hair. Victor opened his mouth and Yuuri reached into it with his tongue. Victor made a sound in the back of his throat and pulled Yuuri closer.

After what felt like forever, Yuuri released Victor, his head spinning, convinced that he would pass out any minute. He wasn’t sure when his hands had travelled down, but they’d found Victor’s hips just as his knee rose again. With an odd feeling of detachment Yuuri watched his right hand drift to the middle of Victor’s stomach and slide down.

_I wonder if vampires are the same down there, _he suddenly thought. It had never seemed important before, but the question was very important now.

Victor made a needy noise.

Yuuri snatched his hand away.

“Won’t you…” Victor’s voice faltered, “…finish what you started?”

Yuuri couldn’t meet Victor’s gaze. “I… uh… it’s …um going to… be sunrise soon and you need to go. You need –”

“I need _you_,” Victor whispered hungrily, leaning in close and letting his nose touch Yuuri’s.

Yuuri felt his body shudder and beg for the same. “They _know_. They will attack you the first chance they get. You need to go.” He was reasoning with himself more than with Victor.

At those words, there was a smile on Victor’s face. “I’m flattered that you care so much about me.”

“Of course I care about you!” Yuuri exclaimed hotly. “How can I _not_ care?”

Victor caressed Yuuri’s face. “If I go, when will I see you again?”

“As soon as they stop watching me,” Yuuri promised, “I’ll come find you.”

“What if they never let you leave?” Victor insisted, continuing to stroke Yuuri’s face. “What if you’re stuck here forever? What then?”

“I’ll think of something.”

Victor pressed a kiss to the corner of Yuuri’s mouth. “I can’t take that risk. I won’t survive another separation. I want to stay with you.” He pressed a kiss to the other corner of Yuuri’s mouth. “Please let me.”

“I don’t see why not,” a third voice spoke up.

Yuuri turned his head, feeling embarrassed at being caught out like this.

His mother stood before him. Her small figure radiated an air of calm, but Yuuri placed himself between her and Victor without even thinking about it.

She pretended not to notice. “I don’t see why you keep insisting that _werewolf_ Victor can’t stay.” He knew that she wouldn’t be fooled and that her nose would tell her who was really before her, but still he’d dared to hope that she’d accepted Victor’s story. The way she said “werewolf” told him that she hadn’t been fooled.

He closed his eyes and tried to remain calm. _This is a trap, _he thought. _They’ll force Victor to stay, pretending that they’re just being nice, and kill him. Oh why did he have to come? Why? _His hand found Victor’s and gripped it. He didn’t turn his head. _Then I’ll protect him, _he decided. _If they want to kill him, they’ll have to kill me too._

His heart beat fast in terror, but he raised his chin and met his mother’s eye. “I’ll look after Victor,” he declared. It was almost dawn anyway. “I’ll keep him _safe_.”

She merely smiled.

He walked away, pulling Victor after him.

His head was so full of terror and worry that he had no room left to spare for thoughts about where they were going. That was how they both ended up in Yuuri’s bedroom.

Yuuri’s eye fell on his bed and his heart jumped in his chest. _Oh god! I can’t imagine what he think of me now! _He threw a sideways glance at Victor.

The vampire unbuttoned his shirt and stepped up to Yuuri. “You have a wonderful…” His hand slid up under Yuuri’s chin, making him suddenly very conscious of just how bare his neck was. “…room…” Victor breathed out. “I’ve never met anyone like you.” He used the fingers of his other hand to brush Yuuri’s hair out of his face.

Yuuri’s loud breathing drowned out all other sounds.

“But, alas,” Victor made a sad face and stepped away, “dawn is coming soon and we have to hurry, or I will die before –”

With a leap, Yuuri was at the window, closing his thick curtains, afraid of letting any light enter the room.

In the sudden darkness, he felt Victor’s hands slide over his shoulders. “Can werewolves see in the dark?” he whispered right into his ear.

“No…” Yuuri admitted in a voice just above a whisper.

Victor’s chest pressed against Yuuri’s back as his lips hovered at Yuuri’s ear. “Do you have any candles?”

_I’m in my bedroom with a vampire, _Yuuri thought as his heart raced, pumping blood up to his face.

Blood.

_He’s going to drink my blood!_

Victor’s lips pressed against the skin just behind Yuuri’s ear as he rubbed Yuuri’s shoulders gently with both hands. “Don’t be frightened,” he whispered. “I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

“I’m not frightened!” Yuuri protested.

“You are,” Victor told him. “I can hear your heart hammering away.”

“They’ll hurt you,” Yuuri whispered. “I don’t want them to hurt you.”

Victor’s hand was on Yuuri’s neck, his thumb stroking Yuuri gently. His hands were so cold.

_He’s a vampire._

A shudder passed over Yuuri’s skin and he took Victor’s hand off his neck. “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.” He kissed Victor’s hand and contemplated it, as if seeing it for the first time.

“Don’t worry,” Victor tried to reassure him. “It takes a lot to hurt a vampire.”

Yuuri gave a little shake of his head. How could Victor be this stupid? “I know all about the different ways to kill a vampire.”

For a moment there was a silence then Victor chuckled softly. “No reason to be afraid, then.” It was hard to tell what emotion went into those words. Was he frightened too? Or was he just amused?

Victor’s hands were so cold. Yuuri pressed his knuckles against his own mouth, as if trying to warm Victor’s hand with his lips.

Victor breathed in sharply.

Yuuri’s lips parted, catching Victor’s middle finger. He let his mouth slide over Victor’s skin until he reached the tips of his finger. Then he changed direction, sliding Victor’s finger right into his mouth.

Victor shuddered. “Yuuri!”

Yuuri released Victor’s fingers and reached up with his mouth to catch Victor’s mouth. Victor shifted closer, his shoulders pressed against Yuuri’s shoulders.

Again Yuuri thought about where they were and how dangerous it was for Victor to remain here. He gripped one of Victor’s hands and held it to his heart. It wasn’t safe, but Yuuri didn’t want to ever let Victor go.

Maybe they could run away together, somewhere beyond both their families’ reach. He’d heard about a human invention that looked like a giant metal bird and carried people to far-off places. They could take one of those and get far away from everyone else.

He noticed then that Victor’s free hand was undoing the buttons of his shirt. His hand slipped in, trying to reach Yuuri’s bare skin.

Yuuri broke the kiss. “We can’t…” he whispered. “What if someone comes in and finds us?”

“Bite me,” Victor whispered. “Make me a werewolf and I’ll be able to stay here with you.”

Yuuri clutched Victor’s hand tighter as his heart leapt in his chest. “You’d do that for me?”

“Without hesitation.”

Yuuri licked his lips nervously. “I’ve never done this before. I don’t… I’m not sure I know how to do it.”

“It’s easy…” Victor pulled Yuuri towards the bed and lay down on it, pulling Yuuri after him. They tumbled on top of each other.

Victor spread his legs and Yuuri found himself between them. For a long moment, he struggled with this realization. His hips gave a gentle push against Victor’s without any thought from him.

“Are you sure we can’t do this?” Victor gasped out, his body shuddering.

“No.” Yuuri buried his face in Victor’s neck as he admitted, “I’m not sure.”

They burst into helpless laughter that lasted several minutes. Victor’s arms wrapped around Yuuri’s shoulders as Yuuri did his best to avoid pushing against Victor’s body again. He felt as if he was tottering on a great precipice and would fall any second now.

Victor was the first to regain his calm. “Bite me, Yuuri,” he whispered and Yuuri could feel how excited Victor was by the sound of his own request.

Yuuri nuzzled Victor’s neck with his nose. A werewolf bite didn’t need to be on the neck, but he could feel that this was what Victor really wanted. He pressed a kiss at the bottom of Victor’s neck and felt the shudder that shook him in response. For a moment, he hovered uncertainly over Victor’s skin. They hardly knew each other. How could anyone hand themselves over to another person like that? What if Victor changed his mind?

“Yuuri…” Victor’s voice sounded broken. “Yuuri… _please_.”

“Are you sure about this?” The question burst out of Yuuri before he could properly think. “Are you sure you want to change forever, just to be with me? There’s no going back after this. What if you change your mind?”

“Yuuri…” Victor began, his arms untangling from Yuuri’s neck and sliding between the two of them and into Yuuri’s open shirt. “Don’t tease me like this. It’s just plain cruel.”

“Maybe it’s better for you to go home,” Yuuri continued to insist. “You can find a vampire you like and –”

“Please!” Victor interrupted. “I want this! I know I do!”

Yuuri shifted a little closer, adjusted the pillow under Victor’s head and sank his teeth into Victor’s skin. Victor let out a loud scream that cut off abruptly. Terrified by what he’d done, Yuuri released Victor and moved away.

“Did I hurt you?” he whispered. “I’m so sorry, Victor! I’m sorry!” He caressed the teeth marks with his fingers.

Victor’s gasps filled the air and Yuuri’s blood ran cold. He’d killed him! He’d killed Victor!

Yuuri dropped his head onto Victor’s chest and apologized over and over again.

Victor drew in a ragged breath. “Take me…” he whispered. “Take me or I’m afraid I’ll burst in two!”

“But… you’re supposed to… change,” he finished lamely. It was all too obvious that the change wasn’t happening and Yuuri wondered why.

Victor shook, but not because he was turning into something else. He was gasping and trying to tear his own clothes off. He gasped Yuuri’s name over and over again and dragged Yuuri’s hands over his own chest. But still he wasn’t changing.

Yuuri pulled away and sat up. “Victor, you’re not –”

“I know,” Victor whispered in the darkness. “I _know_.” He caught Yuuri’s hand and moved close. Yuuri couldn’t see him, but the smells coming from Victor suggested that the vampire was sitting next to him. The smells were also telling him that Victor had taken the bite really well and Yuuri tensed, waiting for Victor to ask for another one. He really knew nothing about vampires, he thought wretchedly.

“Do that again,” Victor breathed out, just as Yuuri had expected him to.

“Victor, please,” Yuuri whispered. “Can’t you see? It didn’t work. You’re still a vampire and every minute you spend here it gets more dangerous for you.”

Victor’s breathing grew steadier. “Do you want me to turn you into a vampire, then? Would you come live with me forever?” He caressed Yuuri’s face. He could probably see the expression of fear that was there.

To become a vampire, the thing his parents had fought against, to become his family’s _enemy_… He shuddered at the thought and then wondered if Victor had thought the same way about changing into a werewolf, or if it hadn’t even occurred to him. But he’d agreed!

“I can’t…” Yuuri whispered. “I can’t do it, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize,” Victor reassured him, caressing Yuuri’s hands. “We’ll figure something out.”

Panic rose in Yuuri’s chest. They couldn’t leave this for later. They didn’t have the luxury of time. They had to decide everything now.

Now.

He breathed out slowly. “I don’t know what to do,” he finally admitted. “I don’t want to be separated from you, but I don’t know where we could be safe.” He clutched Victor’s hand tightly. “Please understand. I can’t protect you from all of them. I will try to do it, but I doubt that I can.”

“I’ve been around for hundreds of years,” Victor said in a soothing tone of voice. “Perhaps, the time has come for it all to end.”

“Victor!”

“In which case, I dare not complain. To have met you –”

Unable to listen to this any longer, Yuuri cut Victor off with a kiss. Victor dropped onto the pillow. Yuuri let his hands roam down over Victor’s body. His chest was all bare. He must’ve tossed his jacket and shirt off in the dark at some point when Yuuri’s attention was elsewhere.

Down, down. Yuuri couldn’t stop his hands, as if they belonged to someone else now. He felt the outline of Victor’s stomach and still there was no hint of clothing.

What do vampires have down there? The question returned to him just as his hands arrived at the answer.

Victor wasn’t wearing any pants, or even underpants. And now Yuuri’s fingers were telling him that anatomically – on the outside at least – vampires and werewolves weren’t that different.

“Yuuri!”

He squeezed and then let his hand slide under Victor.

Victor let out another gasp. His body rose, his chest pushed against Yuuri’s and his mouth trailed over Yuuri’s mouth. “Take me!” he begged in a frantic whisper.

At this point, to do anything less would be cruel. Yuuri’s body protested that they could do this first and then figure out what happens next.

Victor pushed his hips against Yuuri’s hand just as Yuuri began to pull it away.

Yuuri smiled. “I didn’t realize you were so demanding.”

He sat up and traced out the lines of Victor’s body in the dark with his thumbs. Once he was sure he had   
Victor by the hips, he reached down with his mouth.

“Yuuri!” Victor’s hands dug into Yuuri’s hair and he made more sounds, each one sent a tingle that travelled down Yuuri’s spine.

Finally Yuuri raised his head.

The sound of loud breathing followed and then he heard Victor whisper, “If you could see what I can see right now…”

Yuuri could imagine it. Victor’s thighs were pressed against his cheeks and he knew there was a smile on his face and a blush on his cheeks.

“Switch with me,” he whispered.

Victor pulled his hands away and his next words came out muffled as if the was using them to cover his face.

“What is it?” Yuuri climbed over Victor and lowered his head over Victor’s. He could feel Victor’s hands under his lips.

“I’m too weak to move,” Victor whispered back

“Do you want me to keep going, then?” Yuuri offered in a low voice.

“Yes.” Victor’s voice sounded weak and for a moment Yuuri thought that someone else had spoken.

Yuuri slid his hands under Victor, over his shoulder blades as one of his knees split Victor’s legs apart. Victor offered no resistance at all. Yuuri pressed a kiss to Victor’s neck and listened to the gasp he got in response. His thumb traced out Victor’s right nipple and – sure enough – there was another gasp.

“Victor…” he whispered, letting the tips of his fingers trace out his chest curiously.

“Please…” Victor said in a hoarse voice. “Please take your clothes off.”

This time Yuuri didn’t think about any consequences. He forgot where they were entirely. He only wondered why he still had his clothes on. Well, a few quick movements could take care of that.

“I don’t have…” Victor whispered, “any…” he gasped, “any…”

Yuuri cut him off with another kiss.

Their legs were twisted around each other.

He needed to turn Victor around and make use of two human inventions he’d obtained years ago, but he couldn’t let Victor go. He was pressed up against Victor, so much skin touching Victor’s skin, their scents mixing until Yuuri was sure that _he_ was the vampire and Victor – the werewolf.

Yuuri was making needy sounds now. They were coming from the back of his throat and they refused to stop.

“Yuuri!” Victor gasped with what sounded like fascination and Yuuri caught a long kiss.

“I’m going to be yours forever,” Victor whispered, breaking free and catching Yuuri again. His fingers treaded through Yuuri’s hair. “Forever.”

Yuuri felt his tail wag under his skin. Forever!

_Forever! _he thought as he turned Victor over. _Forever! _echoed in his head while he searched for what he needed and then again he thought about forever as he took Victor at last.

Outside the sun had risen, but in here the curtains kept them hidden away in the dark. Victor’s legs were tangled around Yuuri’s, or maybe Yuuri’s were tangled around Victor’s – it was hard to tell.

“Sleep,” Yuuri whispered, taking Victor’s hand and planting a kiss on his knuckles. “Sleep. I’ll look after you.”

Victor buried his nose in Yuuri’s neck, making him tense for a moment. “Thank you,” he whispered and his body stilled as he went to sleep.

Yuuri let out a long slow sigh and tried to think of what to do next.

_Victor couldn’t explain why he kept coming to the café. At first, he thought that maybe if Yuuri changed his mind they’d be able to find each other this way, but after three days it was becoming increasingly obvious that he was just not going to return. Still Victor came day after day, unable to think of anything else to do, like an animal trapped in a cage, pacing from one end to the other._

_He wouldn’t go back home, he _couldn’t_. How could he return to his former life after having met someone as wonderful as Yuuri? It was unthinkable._

_But this disappearance frightened him. Did it mean that Yuuri had changed his mind about wanting to see him, or had something terrible, irreversible, happened?_

_Victor lowered his head onto his hands and let fear take him. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know if, like him, Yuuri had found a place to stay in the city, or…_

_“Are you alright?”_

_He raised his head and saw one of the baristas standing in front of him. It took him several minutes to realize that the question had been directed at him. “I’m…” he wanted to say “fine”. He wanted to lie and get this man to leave, but for some reason he couldn’t. “…I’m not.”_

_“You’re waiting for him, aren’t you?”_

_Victor wanted to shake the man. How did he know? What else did he know? Did he know where Yuuri went? And then he remembered that he’d met Yuuri here before and he’d spent several days here, very obviously waiting for someone. “I am,” he answered, “but he must’ve changed his mind about wanting to see me.”_

_The barista smiled. “Or something happened that’s keeping him from coming here. Have you tried calling or texting him to see if he’s ok?”_

_“I don’t have his number,” Victor admitted. It was easier to say that than to admit that he wasn’t sure if Yuuri had a phone at all and had never found a chance to ask the question._

_“Then go see him,” the barista suggested as if it was the easiest thing in the world._

_“His family doesn’t like me,” Victor told him, making the biggest understatement ever. Werewolves used to kill vampires and would probably continue to do so, given the chance._

_“What’s the worst they can do?” the barista asked and Victor fought back the urge to answer. “You care about him, don’t you?”_

_“I do,” Victor agreed._

_“Well, then…” and the barista nodded meaningfully at the door._

_Victor wasn’t going to argue with that, so he got up and left at once._

And now here he was – in Yuuri’s embrace, every sensation as good as he’d expected it to be. He was somewhere between awake and asleep. Outside, the sun had gone down, he could feel it. He remembered how Yuuri had insisted that he leave and he feared that Yuuri would return to insist upon it again.

He pressed a kiss against Yuuri’s chest and caressed it with his hand.

“Victor…” Yuuri whispered.

_I want you to do all that to me again_, he thought and opened his mouth to request as much when Yuuri sat up sharply.

He didn’t need to ask any questions this time: he heard the sound of someone’s approaching steps. He could hear their heart beat fast. A werewolf heart.

“You need to hide,” Yuuri whispered with a note of urgency in his voice. “Can you turn into a bat and –”

“I’m not leaving you,” Victor insisted firmly.

“Please,” Yuuri begged.

With a sigh, Victor turned into a bat and let Yuuri hide him. He didn’t like turning into a bat: it always left him with a strong craving for blood and this close to Yuuri who lay there naked in a bed they’d just made love in, the craving was only worse.

Yuuri stuffed him unceremoniously under the pillow and yanked the blanket over himself up to his chin.

There was a knock on the door.

“Yes, mother?” Yuuri called.

And then Victor remembered about werewolves’ excellent sense of smell. Any one of them would be able to smell him in here, which meant that hiding was meaningless.

He couldn’t let Yuuri face his mother alone, but he also couldn’t think of what to do that would help Yuuri. He lay still and waited for inspiration to come to him.

Victor heard the door open and his mother came in.

He tensed and heard Yuuri’s heart beat faster. The more he thought about it, the more certain he became that what they’d done the night before was extremely foolish. He should’ve persuaded Yuuri to leave with him. They should’ve run as fast and as far as they could. Maybe they could still do that now, he thought. He wasn’t sure if Yuuri would be punished for this, or how werewolves who made love to vampires got punished, but he found himself hoping they got banished. Banishment was hard, but at least it meant they could still be together.

Yuuri’s mother was calm. For several seconds she said nothing. Finally she closed the door behind her and spoke, “Victor needs to leave right now. Please don’t argue with me, Yuuri. I know he’s here.”

Victor felt Yuuri simmering angrily and felt a wave of affection rise in his chest and then Yuuri’s mother said something that filled him with dread and terror.

“His family is looking for him. They’re convinced that he’s been captured by werewolves.” There was a sigh before she said, “If he doesn’t join them now, they’ll start another war.”


	5. An Excellent Opportunity

Yuuri barely had a chance to send Victor off with a proper goodbye. First he pleaded with Victor, beginning him to leave, to keep the situation from getting worse. Then he had to watch Victor walk away and do nothing, robbed of his right to have a single moment alone with Victor.

_This is for the best, _Yuuri thought. _It would never work between us. At least this ends now before we had a chance to really fall in love and get attached to each other._

A sob escaped his throat and he ran off to his room to hide from the world.

His family knew what they’d done. It was obvious in the way their scents had mixed: Victor and Yuuri had made love to each other. Even the werewolf with the least sensitive nose in the world could see it. Yuuri knew that they had figured it out, but he wasn’t ready to face them about it just yet.

Now what? He didn’t know.

He lay on the bed, wallowing in his misery. Everything was terrible. The world was terrible. He was never going to be happy. They would always be kept apart.

He buried his face in the pillow and imagined them locking him away in a tower. His mind painted him an image of Victor flying over to him, shaped like a bat and getting locked up with Yuuri. It was hopeless.

The pillow and the blankets still smelled like Victor. He closed his eyes and replayed the memory of Victor’s hands on him.

He would be stuck like this forever, always reliving this memory.

A knock on the door made him raise his head. “Yes?” he asked in a crushed voice.

His sister was in the doorway. She regarded him for several moments in silence. Finally she said, “Mother and father want to speak with you.”

Yuuri closed his eyes and clutched the pillow to his chest. “Are they very angry with me?” he asked in a very low voice.

He considered this question. “They know that vampires can be very charming.”

Yuuri put his hands over his face. They thought Victor had seduced him. Of course they did, but what could Yuuri say to that? Agreeing with it was unthinkable, but he knew that no matter what he said, it would be dismissed as vampire charm. No one could be that calculating, Yuuri reasoned with himself. No one could pretend so convincingly.

“Will you come?” his sister asked.

She wasn’t the kind to get affectionate, but just then what Yuuri really needed was affection, someone to hold him close and tell him that everything would be ok.

But there was no one here to do that for him, so he had to pull through without someone there to comfort him.

“Tell them I’m on my way,” he said.

Maybe he could wash all the smells off and pretend nothing had happened. He knew it wouldn’t fool anyone, but perhaps it would make him feel better about this.

When he entered the large living room a half hour later, he found his whole family gathered there, down to his aunts and uncles and cousins. They sat on every available seat. Some of them were seated on the floor next to the couches, having nowhere else to sit. Every eye turned to look at him as soon as he entered the room.

He trembled under their collective stares. His eyes searched around for somewhere to sit. And then he noticed the empty chair left in the middle of the room. It was very obvious that they’d left it there for him and were now waiting for him to take it.

He had no illusions about how this would go. Not wanting to antagonize them more than necessary, he took the chair and braced himself for a telling off.

For several more seconds he remained under his family’s close scrutiny and then all eyes turned to Yuuri’s mother, waiting for her to speak.

“I sent a messenger to the vampires,” Yuuri’s mother began, “requesting that they meet us for negotiations. We need them to understand that we don’t want a war.”

A murmur of agreement filled the room. It was true, Yuuri suddenly realized, none of them wanted a war. He could smell their discomfort at the thought. For all their hate of vampires, they’d grown used to these years of peace and didn’t want them to end.

Hope filled Yuuri’s chest. If they didn’t want to fight, then maybe they would do all they could to keep the war from happening.

“Do you really think that’s enough?” one of the aunts asked. “The vampires will see this as an insult, as an attack. They’ll never believe that one of their own came to a werewolf’s house out of his free will and will be offended by the mere suggestion of the idea.”

“We must make an attempt,” Yuuri’s mother declared coldly. There was no arguing with that tone. To reinforce her point, her gaze swept through the room. There was no smile on her lips and that told them all that the decision had been made and nothing could change it now. She rose and spoke again in a quiet voice, but not a single person in the room dared to make a sound and, so, her words could be heard clearly by everyone in the room. “Takeshi and I will go.” Her eyes swept over the room a second time and stopped on Yuuri. “And Yuuri will come with us.” A bright smile appeared on her face.

Yuuri shuddered. He didn’t know what his mother’s smile meant. Was it meant to reassure him?

But she turned on her heels and left the room before he could even consider asking for an explanation. His father followed right behind her.

At that, everyone around them rose and shuffled out of the room, circling around Yuuri and not meeting his eye.

What did that mean? Why was she insisting that he come? Would his parents explain _why_ Victor had come all this way and blame it all on Yuuri? Was it possible that Yuuri’s life might be offered in exchange for peace? The thought chilled his blood. His parents had always been very kind to him, but he’d heard dark murmurs about the terrible things they’d done during the war.

Yuuri walked to the door in a daze.

His sister barged back in before he could leave the room. “What are you waiting for?” she asked Yuuri.

“Waiting? I’m not waiting for anything,” he stammered out. Perhaps he _was _waiting for something, he reflected. He was waiting for someone to tell him what to do, for a start. “Maybe I am,” he admitted, feeling foolish.

“We need to make you look presentable,” Mari declared as if he hadn’t said anything.

“Presentable?” Yuuri echoed, aware he was slow on the uptake and cursing himself for it.

“Yes. You’re going to the negotiations, which means that you’ll have to sit in the same room as the vampires.” When Yuuri’s expression didn’t change, she clarified, “the vampire family in charge. It’s all about making good impressions, intimidating your opponent and the sharpness of your suit, that kind of thing. There was an edge to her voice that suggested that she didn’t approve. “We need to find something for you.”

Yuuri swallowed nervously and followed her out of the room and down the hall.

Mari was determined to get this right, as if the success of their peace mission depended on how good Yuuri looked in a suit. For one mad moment he thought they planned to show him at his best and blame him for seducing Victor, but he shook the thought off almost right away. It was absurd! How could anyone look at him and think, “oh, yes! Any vampire would forget himself and his family to run away with such a handsome werewolf!”

He didn’t argue with Mari. If his parents prevented another war from starting and he survived all this, he vowed to never disobey them ever again. Better to die of heartbreak and loneliness than to be responsible for hundreds of deaths.

It was a long journey to get to the place of the conference. Yuuri’s family had to obtain a car for this special occasion. Normally, they’d all travel in wolf shape, but they needed to arrive looking presentable, so they took the car.

Yuuri sat between his parents, feeling awkward and doing his best to keep his suit from creasing too much. He stared at his hands and wondered if Victor would be there. Probably not. After his disappearance, the vampires would want to keep him as far away from their enemy as possible, he was sure of it.

His parents barely said a single word throughout the whole journey. Only when the turrets of a castle appeared up ahead, did her mother address him, “You will leave all the talking to us, Yuuri.”

He nodded to show he understood. More words hung in the air between them. _You already messed this situation up. Don’t make it worse._

Yuuri lowered his head. He should’ve been born a human. He should’ve gotten one of their short lives. Then he could’ve done something with his life instead of spending most of it locked up in a big mansion in the middle of a forest, stuck listening to stories about the war everyone had fought in but him.

He thought of the lake where Victor had found him once. In the winter months it froze over and he’d step out onto the ice in a pair of shows with knife blades on them and just glide over the smooth surface. This was another human thing, like the big Halloween party, the café where he and Victor were supposed to meet and the car his parents had borrowed. Humans had all the fun and all the interesting things. Maybe it came with being mortal.

The car came to a stop and his mother gave his knee a light pat. “Smile, Yuuri. They doing us a great honour by accepting us here.”

She opened her door and slipped out with a grace Yuuri had never seen her demonstrate before. His father was out next. It took Yuuri several moments to gather his courage before he could join them outside.

A vampire appeared before them from what felt like thin air and bowed in greeting. He was dressed head to toe in black. “Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Dogsuki. His Lordship and Her Ladyship are waiting for you inside.” The word Ladyship was followed by such a long title that by the time he reached the end Yuuri forgot how it had started.

It was said that vampires liked to collect titles as a kind of hobby to pass the centuries. Werewolves, on the other hand, detested all kinds of titles, treating them as a vampire invention and therefore not to be accepted ever.

It occurred to Yuuri then that if they were meeting a vampire family for these talks, this meant that they were about to talk to vampire royalty. He wasn’t sure how they selected their leader. Werewolves fought each other for the right to be the person who led the other werewolf families. Last time they had a fight his mother had come out victorious.

That had been before the war. Would her position change if these talks ended in the declaration of a new war? Was her position as leader on the line here? He didn’t know. Yuuri had only a vague notion of how everything worked and he’d never witnessed anything up close to be able to judge things for himself.

The vampire who’d greeted them escorted them up the grand staircase that led into the castle. He turned into a long corridor, taking care to stay ahead of them to show them the way.

The castle was an unwelcoming place. The ceilings were so high that they got lost in the darkness of the room. There were portraits on the walls, but it wasn’t light enough to make out the features of the people in them. Tall windows lined the walls, but all of them were covered by dark curtains to keep out even the smallest beam of light from entering. The place was filled with smells Yuuri had never encountered before. The scent of vampire, however, was very subtle, as if they rarely walked these halls.

It was so cold in here. Yuuri shivered and rubbed his hands to keep warm. He was having a hard time believing that anyone could live in a place like this.

They reached the doors that never seemed to end and their guide regarded them for several seconds of unnerving silence. At last, he seemed to come to a conclusion that they were ready to enter. He turned and opened the door.

“Mr. and Mrs. Dogsuki!” he announced, stepping out before them and giving a low bow.

Yuuri’s eye fell at once on the small table in the middle of the room, surrounded on all sides by couches. Three vampires sat here. All of them were dressed in a way that made them look elegant. Two of them had something familiar in their features and one of them turned out to be Victor.

He and Yuuri exchanged a glance and then Yuuri looked at his mother, trying to guess how to act in this situation.

Yuuri’s parents took the seats offered to them.

“Come here, Yuuri,” his mother called in a tone that sounded soft and gentle, but supplementing it with a look that very much wasn’t.

There was nothing to do but obey her. Yuuri took the indicated spot and kept his eyes lowered, feeling Victor’s eye on him.

“My family received a great offense at the hands of one of your family members. Not only was it a deep insult of our honour, but it was also in violation of the agreement we signed. Can you explain to me why this happened?”

Yuuri trembled. He felt grateful that his mother had assumed responsibility for speaking on his behalf. He had no excuse for what he’d done, no way to justify his crime. His head lowered further, as if brought down by the weight of his actions. He stared at his hands in his lap as his mother spoke.

“My son had no violent intentions. They met as friends,” she explained in a calm tone.

“Friends,” Her Ladyship repeated in a cold voice. “I am not so naïve as to believe that.” Her voice held the hint of steel now. “Come here, Victor,” she beckoned.

Yuuri heard the shuffling of his feet, but still he didn’t dare to raise his eyes and look. A faint rustling sounded, accompanied by murmured protests from Victor.

“Do you know what this is?” Her Ladyship asked.

Yuuri raised his head, his curiosity overcoming his fear at last and saw Victor standing with his neck bared. His blood rose to his cheeks as he realized what she was pointing to.

His mother remained silent. Yuuri didn’t dare meet her eye.

“These are bite marks,” the accuser went on, indicating them as one would point out a tree that had a strange growth on it. “They were left there by your son, Mrs. Dogsuki.”

Yuuri went back to staring at his hands. Once he got past his initial embarrassment, he realized how vampires would interpret teeth marks left by a werewolf. Who would believe the story that Victor had asked for them himself? It was so much easier to come to the opposite conclusion.

“Can anyone here explain them to me? Perhaps, since you brought _him_ here, he can explain his actions himself?” the woman finished icily, the word “him” filled with venom.

Yuuri felt everyone’s attention settle on him.

He clutched his hands tighter. _Because Victor had asked me to do it. Because he thought him turning into a werewolf would let us stay together. Because Victor wanted to feel the bite itself. Because… _he hesitated before admitting the final truth to himself, _…because I wanted to do it. _He closed his eyes and remembered the scream Victor had let out in response. He’d thought it meant that he’d hurt the vampire. Now he knew that the sound hadn’t been a scream of pain at all. It had been an orgasm.

He blushed and paled as first his thoughts turned to their night together and then to their separation and how everyone present would react to the truth.

“Mother,” Victor spoke up at last and Yuuri could hear the embarrassment in his voice, “Yuuri bit me because I asked him to.”

_Mother? _Yuuri’s head snapped up. Of course! That was why they looked so familiar! They were Victor’s parents!

“As if I will believe that!” his mother exclaimed. “You are a sensible vampire, Victor, don’t lie to me. You don’t need to defend this werewolf. Whatever hold he had over you, it’s gone now.”

“No, mother,” Victor countered. He crossed the room and put a hand under Yuuri’s chin, raising it to look into his eyes. “You don’t understand. Yuuri and I went on a date together. He was very nice to me and I wanted to see him again, but then he didn’t come, so I went to find him.” He put his arms around Yuuri’s head and clutched it to his chest. “Yuuri bit me because I asked him to! We were making – we were having sex!”

There was a long silence after those words.

Yuuri could imagine the disgust on all their face. His parents had known this, of course, but they’d acted as if nothing had happened. Another thought occurred to him then: Victor would get ridiculed for his honesty and then they will try to convince him that all this hadn’t actually happened.

He freed himself gently and rose to his feet. “And I’d do it again, if I could,” he admitted with a faint blush on his cheeks. He caught both of Victor’s hands with his own and stared into his face.

Victor blushed, lowered his eyes and then gave Yuuri a look that promised that there was more where that came from.

Yuuri rubbed his thumbs over Victor’s knuckles.

“Well,” Yuuri’s father spoke, breaking the silence and startling Yuuri, who’d forgotten that he and Victor weren’t alone. “I think that answers most of my questions.”

Victor’s mother looked furious. “In _love_ with a werewolf? Never had I – I can’t begin to explain –” Her fury chocked her, making it impossible for her to finish a single sentence.

Yuuri turned his head to see what his parents thought of this. To his surprise, they were both smiling. He braced himself for a fight.

“I think we have an excellent opportunity here,” Yuuri’s mother declared.

_Oh no. _Yuuri’s blood ran cold. _They’re going to make an example of us. We’re going to get a terrible punishment so they can all point at us and say “this is what happens when you disobey.” _He closed his eyes and prayed for banishment.

There was a pause as each person considered what this opportunity could be.

“…to secure the peace between vampires and werewolves once and for all…” She rose and walked over to Yuuri and Victor. She hesitated for just a moment before putting her arms around them, “…with a marriage!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, leaving kudos and comments!
> 
> For anyone wondering what happened to Yuuri's last name: I couldn't call a werewolf family Kat-suki, so it became Dogsuki... I know it's a bad pun. I'm sorry!
> 
> I keep forgetting to mention that this fic (including the title) was inspired by [this art](https://tosquinha.tumblr.com/post/188725679687/patreon-twitter).
> 
> Up next:  
1) a fic that I'm temporarily calling "Kinks on a Train"  
2) a Pushing Daisies AU for The Raven Cycle books (if you haven't read The Raven Cycle books, I really recommend them! They're so good!!)


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